


You're In My Heart

by danrdarrenc



Category: Days of Our Lives
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-04
Updated: 2018-09-04
Packaged: 2019-07-06 16:42:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15889974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/danrdarrenc/pseuds/danrdarrenc
Summary: Will plans a surprise proposal to Sonny but it turns into something more.





	You're In My Heart

The idea comes to Will when he finds the papers stuffed in the back of his desk drawer. In the chaos and excitement of the return of his memories, he’s forgotten that he and Sonny are actually divorced. 

He remembers what he said to Sonny that first night:  _You’re my husband. And I’m yours. And it will always be that way._  It was the truth then and it’s the truth now. In their hearts and their every day life they’re (still) married, but the law says otherwise. 

A plan begins to form.

* * *

“Adrienne? Justin? Can I talk to you?” Will finds them both in the sitting room of the Kiriakis mansion, Adrienne drinking tea, Justin reading over some paperwork. 

Despite it being nearly Christmas, Sonny is off on a week-long business trip to Chicago that Chad has sent him on and Will takes the opportunity to set his plan in motion. 

“Will, hi.” Adrienne greets him with a smile. She’s been nicer and more maternal to him in the few months since he’s gotten his memories back than she was to him during the entirety of the three years that Will was with Sonny before. He supposes she’s just glad to see Sonny happy again. 

“What can we do for you?” Justin asks, abandoning his papers. “Is Sonny okay?”

“Oh. Yeah. He’s fine. He’s in Chicago at some conference,” Will explains. “But Sonny is actually what I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Okay.” Will hears the warning in Adrienne’s voice.

“Adrienne, I know you were never a fan of mine. No, please let me finish,” Will says, as Adrienne opens her mouth to speak. “And I know that I broke Sonny’s heart - before. But I never stopped loving him. He’s a part of me in way no one else ever could be. I want to marry him again. So…I’m not asking for your permission but I would like your blessing.”

“Oh, Will.” Adrienne’s voice is soft and her body melts. “Of course you have our blessing,” she says and immediately envelopes him in a hug. 

Justin, too, hugs him tightly and shakes his hand in congratulations.

Will thanks them both and then on his way out says, “I’d like to try to keep this a surprise, so please don’t tell Sonny.”

They both agree.

* * *

Step two is to secure a dinner reservation at Doug’s Place. He’s never sure if Julie is a fan of his but today she appears to be. 

“I know it’s close to Christmas and I know it’s last minute, but I’d really appreciate it if I could get an 8 o’clock dinner reservation for two for Friday night. Sonny comes home on Thursday and I’d like for everything to be set before then.”

“Is there any special reason for this dinner?” She’s got a twinkle in her eye that tells him she knows the answer to that question.

His face splits into an embarrassed grin. “I want to ask him to marry me.”

“Oh, honey.” She melts the same way Adrienne had. “You know what? I can do better than just a dinner reservation for you. You can have the whole place to yourselves.”

“Are you sure?” Will asks, alarmed. “I don’t want to take business away from you.”

She waves his objection away with her hand. “Don’t worry about a thing. I’ll take care of everything. It’ll be perfect.”

“Thank you,” Will responds, overwhelmed by Julie’s sudden outpouring of love. 

* * *

Step three is to buy rings. Will wants this to be a fresh start, so it’s going to be new rings. In any case, Will has no idea where either original ring is. So he heads to the jewelry shop in the Square and picks out two pewter rings.

As he steps out of the store, he literally bumps into Lucas who is out with Will’s new baby sister, courtesy of Bonnie Lockhart.

”Is it weird?” Will asks, gesturing to the one-year old in the carriage Lucas is pushing.

”Having a new baby?” Lucas asks. When Bonnie had first dropped the news on him, he had insisted on a paternity test, which had proved she wasn’t lying. “Not really. You’re all grown up and Allie’s half way across the world. It’s kind of nice having a little person again who depends on me.”

Will grins. “You should bring her over to the apartment. I’m sure Ari would love to use her as a living doll.”

Lucas laughs and then asks, “Was that the jewelry store I saw you leaving?” His eyes sparkle and he has a devilish grin on his face.

Will blushes, caught out by his dad. “Uh, yeah. I’m going to ask Sonny to marry me tomorrow.”

”That’s great!” Lucas booms, startling some nearby passersby. “I’m so happy for you, Will.” He pulls Will into a bone-crushing hug.

When they break apart, Will admits he’s nervous.

”Why?”

”I don’t know. I know he’ll say yes. We still consider ourselves married. But it’s still nerve-wracking, y’know?”

”You’ll be fine,” Lucas encourages just as the baby starts getting fussy. “I should go.”

Will nods and heads in the opposite direction as his father and sister.

* * *

Step four is asking Gabi to take Ari for the weekend, starting tomorrow. It’s an unspoken agreement that Will and Sonny are Arianna’s primary caretakers.

”Of course I’ll have her for the weekend!” Gabi exclaims when he explains why he’s asking. “Oh. I’m so happy for you, Will. You deserve it. Both of you do.” She hugs him tight and he’s overwhelmed by how grateful he is to have her as his friend and the mother of his child.

* * *

Will picks Sonny up at the train station two hours later.

”I missed you,” Sonny says when they break apart from the lingering kiss with which Will has greeted Sonny.

”I missed you, too. Let’s go home. Ari’s there with Gabi waiting to see you.”

After a quick hello hug, Gabi lets herself out of the apartment, leaving the three of them to share a quiet evening.

As they’re climbing into bed after getting Ari settled for the night, Will says, “I thought we could go out for dinner tomorrow, just the two of us. Gabi’s agreed to have Ari for the weekend.”

Sonny looks at him curiously but acquiesces. “Okay. Any particular reason why?”

Will shrugs. “We haven’t really spent much time alone since I got my memory back and I realized how much I missed you this past week.”

Sonny grins slowly, more than appeased. “I love you,” he says, shuffling himself into the middle of the bed to pull Will into a kiss.

Will smiles, his heart full, and meets Sonny’s mouth with his.

* * *

”Doug’s Place?” Sonny asks rather unnecessarily, as they plot the familiar course through town to the club that once belonged to Sonny.

Will nods. “I made us a reservation this morning. I hope it’s okay.” The ring box sits comfortably in Will’s jacket pocket, rising and falling with each of his breaths.

”Of course it’s okay,” Sonny answers, kissing Will’s cheek and lacing their fingers together in between them.

They arrive at the restaurant at five minutes to eight. Inside, the lights are low, soft music plays on the speakers, and there’s a table in the middle set for two, a single rose in a vase sitting in the center of the table. A bottle of champagne rests in a bucket of ice next to the table. Conspicuously, the place is empty of patrons.

”Will?” Sonny questions.

”Julie was feeling generous and closed the place for us,” Will says.

Will leads Sonny to the table. “What are you up to?” Sonny asks as they sit down.”

Will is spared having to answer the question as a waiter appears with menus and to pop the champagne. Having eaten there many times, it takes Will and Sonny only minutes to decide what they want for dinner: steak and fries for Sonny, a bowl of pasta with shrimp and peas for Will.

While they wait for their food, they discuss mundane things: TV shows they want to watch; books Will has yet to read; Sonny’s trip to Chicago; Will’s work at the paper. Eventually, when their food arrives, talk turns to the shenanigans happening around Salem. They discuss the mess of Chad and Abigail’s lives (and Gabi’s part in it); the mess of Jennifer, Brady, and Eric’s lives, in only a small part due to the return of Nicole; Sonny asks about Marlena’s progress, which turns to talk about if either of them have had any news about Paul; and they take bets about how uncomfortable the Horton tree trimming will be this year.

”Is it strange to have a sister younger than Ari?” Sonny asks.

Will ponders the question. “I haven’t really thought about it. I guess so. I think it’s weird for Dad, though. I asked him yesterday about it, actually. He says it’s not but I don’t think he was entirely honest.”

”Will it be weird if she ends up looking like me?”

Will laughs. “Why would she look like you?”

”Bonnie looks just like mom,” Sonny answers. Don’t you think she might resemble me when she gets older?”

Will stares at him, speechless, a forkful of pasta frozen in midair halfway to his mouth. Sonny grins.

After that, Will is too disturbed by that image to carry on anymore conversation and they finish their meal in comfortable silence. When their plates are devoid of any food, Will stands and holds his hand out to Sonny. “Dance with me?”

Sonny’s face softens with a small smile and he takes Will’s hand, falls into Will’s arms, which encircle his waist as soon as Sonny is out of his chair. Sonny’s arms automatically go around Will’s shoulders, his hands resting together behind Will’s head. They sway on the spot, not really dancing, but not standing still either.

“Thank you for tonight,” Sonny says after a bit. “It was nice.”

“Only nice?” Will asks.

Sonny blushes. “More than nice.” After a beat, he says, “Sometimes I still can’t believe this is real. That you’re really here and with me. I don’t say it, but sometimes when I wake up and you’re not in bed, I panic. I have to remind myself that you’re only in the bathroom or Ari’s room.”

Will stops swaying, the mood turned serious, the ring box heavy in his jacket pocket. “I love you, you know that, right?” Will asks, suddenly unsure.

Sonny nods, lips turned up in a small smile. 

“Marry me,” Will says simply. He had planned on a big speech but standing with Sonny in his arms, a big speech doesn’t seem necessary. There are too many words and not enough words to express everything that he wants to say to Sonny.

Sonny’s mouth drops open in surprise. 

Will lets go of Sonny’s waist with one hand and pulls the ring box out of his pocket. “I had planned on making this a proposal,” Will says.

“But?” Sonny asks, his eyes on the box in Will’s hand. 

“My mom told me once when we were out in LA how she and EJ had privately renewed their vows after she forgave him for the Abigail fiasco. I want us to be married again, Sonny, legally, but we don’t need to wait until we’re in front of friends and family to say our vows. So will you marry me tonight?”

Sonny nods furiously, overcome with emotion, and surges forward to kiss Will. Will smiles into the kiss and pulls Sonny closer, their hearts beating in tandem against their chests. 

When they break apart, Will lets go of Sonny to open the ring box. He’s about to take a ring out when Sonny stalls his hand. 

“Can I - can I go first?” Sonny asks. 

Will drops his hand and lets Sonny take out the first ring. “I meant what I said at our wedding. You’re my anchor. When I came back to Salem after San Francisco, I came back with the intention of being gone in a few weeks. And then I met you, and suddenly I didn’t want to be anywhere else.” Sonny stops, searches Will’s eyes. His free hand finds Will’s. “I lost my mooring when you went to LA and I know - I know everything spiraled out of control from there. We both did and said things we shouldn’t have.” 

They’ve already talked about it, that last year, last eight months before Sonny left and Will “died”, but Sonny needs it to be clear now, in this moment, that he’s claiming responsibility in how things ended, needs Will to know that he will makes sure that it never happens again.

“You once said that you brought more of the imperfections to our relationship and I said that wasn’t true. That was the truth then and it’s true now. I took you for granted and I am so  _so_  sorry about that. I judged you more than I should have and I made you feel unloved. I abandoned you and I have hated myself for it every day for the past three years. I never stopped loving you, Will. Burying you was the most awful week of my life. I spent weeks, months after not believing it was real. It turned me cold, and hard, and into someone I didn’t even recognize.”

Sonny looks down, away from Will, and bites his lip. His heart still hurts when he thinks about WIll’s funeral. 

“Coming back to Salem was hard. Everything reminded me of you. And even when I pushed through the memories, I was still uncertain, unmoored, lost without my anchor. But then the most amazing miracle happened.” Sonny returns his gaze to Will and his face splits into a bright smile. “I got you back. You were alive. Suddenly I could breathe again. And even though you couldn’t remember me, you were still here, y’know? I got a piece of my heart back I never thought I would ever see again. These last four months have been a dream come true. 

“And I know that what happened before you died can’t be undone but I need you to know that I will never,  _ever_  take you for granted again. You are the most important person my life, Will, besides Ari.” Sonny takes the ring box from Will and drops it onto the table next to them. Then he lifts Will’s left hand to his mouth and kisses his knuckles before sliding the new wedding ring onto Will’s finger. “I love you so much, Will. As I give you this ring, so I give you my heart.”

Will swallows thickly, overcome with emotion. He laces their fingers together, swings their entwined hands a little at their sides. “When I was in Memphis, all I knew about my life was what Susan had told me. And then you came walking into the bar and completely changed my life. I know the amnesia was hard on you and I am so sorry that you had to suffer like that. But I meant what I said when I got my memory back. You’re in my heart. You’re in my bones. You are part of me in a way no else is. 

“I know that I was kind of a mess that last year before I - before I died. I betrayed your trust so badly. But I never want to be that person again. I also - I also called our life boring,” Will says, his brow furrowing at the bad memory. “That was unfair to you and what we had built together. The truth is you’re my anchor too. These past few months with you I have never felt more settled in my life, like I’m right where I’m supposed to be and who I’m supposed to be with. I didn’t just get my memories back, I got my heart and my soul back.” Will lets go of Sonny’s hands to pull the second ring out of the box on the table. Slipping it onto Sonny’s finger, Will says, “I love you more than anything, Sonny, except for Ari. As I give you this ring, so I give you my heart.”

As soon as the ring is secure on his finger, Sonny takes Will’s face in his hands and kisses him, deeply. 

“Husbands for life,” Sonny mumbles against Will’s mouth, his eyes closed and their foreheads touching.

“Husbands for life,” Will echoes quietly, his arms tightening around Sonny’s waist. 

They return to swaying to the soft music drifting out of the speakers, until eventually they make their way to the privacy of their home. 


End file.
